The MPAA

Last week I spoke about censorship in a broad sense, but as my deadline grew closer, I felt that I had more to say about the topic. Specifically, the MPAA.

The MPAA is not the most rational or democratic organization in the US. They keep their board members secret, and refuse to elaborate on why they gave a particular rating to a particular movie. They leave it up to the filmmaker to decide what parts of his movie to cut, which can lead to unnecessary and damaging deletions. They also, bizarrely enough, refuse to adhere to any standards.

Censorship

The MPAA is not one of my favorite things. They are a biased and wholly ridiculous organization that has far too much influence on artistic creativity. They routinely cut out parts of movies that are ‘overly sexual’, while at the same time allowing violence to go basically unchecked. They act like they are the moral high ground of our society, our protectors of democracy, and yet they hide behind closed doors and a strict privacy policy. If there is anything more hypocritical, I have yet to find it. However, if the MPAA was the only problem, it could be fixed. The problem we have here is censorship.